DRAMA DEPARTMENT

SKILLS and TECHNIQUES

 Work out what you want to show the audience about your
characters relationship with the others on stage.

Are they close or distant? Are there underlying tensions?

Do they know each other?

Do they trust each other?

What are they thinking/feeling?

Which character has the most authority/status/power?

Are they happy/sad/angry/scared of/with each other?

 CONTEXT OF THE SCENE
This helps build up a picture of how a character should be behaving on stage. Questions to ask:

What have I been doing? Relationship to others?

Has anything happened to What time is it?

change my mood?

What am I thinking and feeling?

Where is the scene set?
 THE BASICS
Use acting skills to portray the characters feelings, motivation and relationships.

Eye Contact Gesture

Movement Facial Exp.
Proxemics Voice
Body Language Levels
 OBJECTIVES & SUPER OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES: The point of a character in a specific
scene. WHY are they there and WHAT are they doing?

SUPER OBJECTIVES: The point of a character in the

whole play.

Why is this an important technique to use and how would an actor find it useful?
 List all the things that could motivate someone to walk out of a room:
MOTIVATION

The thing that makes your character

say/do something in a scene.
This gives them a REASON for doing
something and will make the performance
more believable and realistic.
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
Show the thoughts, feelings and
emotions of the characters you are
portraying. Make them larger than life
so the audience can see what you are
doing, especially if they are long way
back in the auditorium.
Why would you use this in a performance?:
BODY LANGUAGE
The use of GESTURE, STANCE, LEVELS to
communicate the emotions/feelings of your
character in a scene. This will communicate your
characters personality, mood and situation.

Why would you use this in performance?

 VOICE
Hold your audiences attention by
making yourself interesting to listen to.
Speak slower and louder than normal
using pauses, emphasis and variety in
TONE, PITCH, RHYTHM and VOLUME.
You need a stage voice which is CLEAR
for an audience.

List all the emotions that you could communicate to the audience through your voice:
 GESTURE
Make your performance
visually interesting. The
types of gesture you use;
aggressive, authoritative,
nervous, will send
messages to the audience
How have you used this?
about your character's
personality, mood and
situation.
 The way you hold your posture on stage will
portray your character’s age, personality and
mood.
Your character’s stance may change according to
what situations they are in.

Compile a list of all the characters that you can think of who would need a
specific stance:

STANCE
 REACTING
The audience is always looking at you, even when
you’re not speaking. You are not on the radio, so
show how your character is reacting to what others
are saying and doing through the use of body
language and facial expressions.

What happens when you DO NOT react to other actors? When and how have you used this in performance?
 Give as many examples as you can where this technique would highlight a relationship between characters:

PROXEMICS
The audience will get a sense of your
relationship with other characters by how
close you are standing to them and the
direction they are facing.
 LEVELS (Status)
Use levels to help indicate status. One character may
be on a higher piece of staging or platform, or it may
simply be that one character is standing and another
is sitting.
It is usually easier to play the dominant, more
powerful character if they are on a higher level.

Give examples of characters who have STATUS (Power) over other characters e.g. teacher & pupil:
 CLIMAX The main MOMENT that the play/story
has been building to. In an action film,
this is often the moment when the
good guy and the bad guy finally come
face to face and have a fight.

Describe the best climax to a film you have seen:

 List as many PROTAGONISTS from TV, FILM,
BOOKS or PLAYS that you can:
The main or central character in a story.
The action revolves around them or their journey.
They are usually the hero of the story.

PROTAGONIST
 ANTAGONIST

List as many examples of ANTAGONISTS that you can think of from TV, FILM, BOOKS or PLAYS:
 Complete the script below:

Teacher: So, John, could you explain to me how the window was smashed?
John: It was an accident, honestly sir. It wasn’t meant to happen.

DUOLOGUE
A conversation between two people.
 Someone who talks DIRECTLY to the audience, telling them
the STORY.

Narrator How have you used a narrator this year? Was it a helpful technique?
 A long speech to an audience or another character onstage.
It focuses on a characters THOUGHTS, FEELINGS &
OBJECTIVES. They do not tell the story. This is the role of a
NARRATOR.

MONOLOGUE Write a monologue for a character you have created this year in drama:
 MASKING
Standing in front of another actor,
obscuring them from the view of the
audience.
Why is it important NOT to mask. Give examples
REDUCED PERFORMANCE
Acting your WHOLE play in ONE minute or LESS!
This technique helps you concentrate on the story you are trying to
perform. It allows you to HIGHLIGHT the KEY moments from the
play.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company are a group of actors who use

this technique in performance. Often taking a 3 hour play and
performing it in just 30 minutes.
CAPTURING THE ESSENCE
Pick the 10 most important LINES in the play and
turn them into your own 10 Line Play. This can be
done in or out of sequence (Linear/Non linear).
This will help you work out WHAT the play is really
about.

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
 In character, improvise a ‘missing scene’
which is NOT in your play. This deepens
your understanding of the character and
their relationships with other characters.

List some scenarios/locations that could be used to do practically explore this technique e.g. waiting to see the doctor.
 Questions you could ask (add to the list):

HOT SEATING 1: How old am I?

2: Where do I live?
3: What do I like/dislike?
4: What am I most afraid of?
5: Who is my best friend?
6: What is your biggest secret?
7: What regrets do you have?
8: What is the best thing ever to happen to you?
9: If you were an animal what would you be and why?
10:
11:
12:
In role, answer questions about your 13:
character. 14:
This helps you flesh out the character 15:
and think about their life OUTSIDE of 16:
the play you have created. 17:
It can often give you to information that 18:
you hadn’t thought about in relation to 19:
your part.
THOUGHT TRACKING

Whilst rehearsing (or performing), freeze the action on

stage. The characters on stage have to say what their
character is thinking or feeling at that moment.
This deepens the actor’s understanding of their
character’s thoughts and feelings. It also ensures that
the actor is communicating the right emotions at that
point in the play.
 Mime your play or scene in one minute. Try miming
dialogue with a movement, gesture or facial expression
for every line. This will help you concentrate on the
visual aspects of the performance.

Charlie Chaplin is possibly the most famous example

of a MIME artist. He won 3 Oscars during his acting
career.

INFO
He was even KNIGHTED by the Queen of England
aged 86 years old.
One of the most controversial roles he played was of
MIME Adolf Hitler in the film “The Great Dictator”.
GENRE – SPLICING!
Perform a scene the way it wasn’t intended – try
it out as a love story, a horror story, thriller,
murder mystery, western, sci-fi etc. This helps you
discover a subtext you did not know was there, as
well as bringing fun back into the rehearsal.

List all the different styles you could use to perform your work:
ROLE ON THE WALL Draw an outline of your character
and put it on the wall/floor. During
rehearsals add pictures,
statements, thoughts and ideas
about the character. This helps you
build a deeper understanding of a
character.

Do this for the next MAJOR project:

 STAGE POSITIONING
The stage is labelled according to the
actor’s left and right: downstage is
closest to the audience and Upstage is
furthest from the audience.

Some interesting facts:

•Centre Stage is usually the MOST important position as

it is the area of CENTRAL focus.
•Downstage is closest to the audience making intimacy
easier.
•Upstage is a position that allows actors to do things
which characters in front of them cannot see.
 STAGE TYPES
These are the four most
POPULAR types of stage types
used in the theatre.
The school hall has a
PROSCENIUM ARCH stage.

Something to try …..:

Next time you create a play, think

about performing it on one of these
4 stage types and see what
difference it makes to the audiences
experience.